The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia, commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ (Cyrillic , ), was a deliberative and legislative body that was established in Bihać in November 1942. It was established by Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans, an armed resistance movement led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to resist the Axis occupation of the country during World War II.

The AVNOJ reconvened in Jajce in 1943 and in Belgrade in 1945, shortly after the war in Europe ended. Between the sessions, it operated through its presidency, its executive council, and the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia. The committee was granted authority normally wielded by cabinets. While Tito presided over the committee, the AVNOJ sessions and its presidency were chaired by Ivan Ribar. The second session of the AVNOJ proclaimed itself Yugoslavia's new legislative body and decided that it should be a multi-ethnic federal state.

By 1944, the Western Allies and the Yugoslav government-in-exile recognised the AVNOJ as the all-Yugoslav legislative body. The third session of the AVNOJ was convened in preparation of the Constituent Assembly when the Yugoslav Parliament was convened again in 1945. Decisions of the AVNOJ determined there would be six units in the federation and defined their borders. It also took over the position of the legitimate ruling body of Yugoslavia from the government-in-exile in dealings with the Allies.

Background Invasion and uprising

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia acceded to the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941 under pressure from Nazi Germany. The latter sought to protect its southern flank before the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, while ensuring the availability of transport routes and economic resources in the Balkans where the Greco-Italian War was in progress. In response to the pact, Royal Yugoslav Armed Forces generals staged a coup d'état deposing the government and Prince Regent Paul. Royal Yugoslav Air Force General Dušan Simović became the Prime Minister and the regency was abolished by declaring Peter II of Yugoslavia of age and thus the king even though he was only seventeen.

On 6 April 1941, the Axis powers invaded and quickly occupied Yugoslavia. Parts of the country were annexed by its neighbours, and the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was carved out as a Ustaše-ruled Axis puppet state. With the country's defeat imminent, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) instructed its 8,000 members to stockpile weapons in anticipation of armed resistance. By the end of 1941, the armed resistance spread to all areas of the country except Macedonia. Building experience in clandestine operation across the country, the KPJ proceeded to organise the Yugoslav Partisans as resistance fighters led by Josip Broz Tito. The KPJ believed that the German invasion of the Soviet Union had created favourable conditions for an uprising. The KPJ politburo founded the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia with Tito as commander-in-chief on 27 June 1941 and the Partisans waged war against the occupying powers until 1945.

Government-in-exile

King Peter II and the government fled Yugoslavia in April 1941 when it became apparent the royal army would not be able to defend the country. The decision to abandon organised armed resistance put the Yugoslav government-in-exile in a weak position, further eroded by political differences between ministers. The government, an extension of the post-coup government led by Simović, based its legitimacy on the 1931 Yugoslav Constitution, which made it responsible to the king. It lost three Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) ministers including the party's leader and the deputy prime minister Vladko Maček, who resigned and stayed in the country. The HSS thus split and lost influence. Džafer Kulenović, the only minister drawn from the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, also resigned.

The government-in-exile was split along an ethnic line separating the HSS from a bloc of Serb ministers drawn from several disunited parties. The divisions deepened because the HSS ministers were reluctant to publicly discuss and condemn Ustaše atrocities against Serbs in late 1941. In January 1942, Simović was replaced by Slobodan Jovanović and his decision to support the Chetniks widened the rift with the HSS ministers. Jovanović saw the Chetniks as a guerrilla force promising the restoration of the monarchy after the war. In combination with fear of communism, this led him to ignore information about Chetnik collaboration with the Axis powers, and appoint their leader Draža Mihailović the Minister of the Army, Navy and Air Forces. At the same time, the government promoted Mihailović to Army General and formally renamed the Chetniks the "Yugoslav Army in the Homeland". In June 1943, Jovanović resigned, unable to reunite the ministers, and his replacement Miloš Trifunović also resigned after less than two months. In August, Božidar Purić was appointed the prime minister of a largely administrative government mostly composed of civil servants, although Mihailović retained his ministerial position.

First session

In November 1942, the Partisans captured Bihać and secured control over a large part of western Bosnia, Dalmatia and Lika, which they called the Bihać Republic. On 26 and 27 November, the pan-Yugoslav Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) was established in the town at the initiative of Tito and the KPJ. At its founding session, the AVNOJ adopted the principle of a multi-ethnic federal state as the basis for the country's future government but did not officially determine what system of government would be implemented after the war. There was a degree of ambiguity regarding the number of future federal units and whether they would all have equal status within the federation.

The AVNOJ also did not mention the international recognition of the London-based Yugoslav government-in-exile, backed by the Western Allies; Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not wish to antagonise the Allies by supporting the Partisans. Shortly before the Bihać session, Tito added the expression "Anti-Fascist" to the original name of the AVNOJ to emphasise its temporary and anti-Axis nature. These steps were made in response to Soviet positions expressed in correspondence in July–November 1942 between the KPJ and Moscow. The Comintern urged Tito to establish a political body solely to liberate the country and not to oppose the Yugoslav monarchy. The Soviets asked the AVNOJ not to openly advance a communist agenda in order to avoid antagonising the Western Allies, and cautioned against appointing Tito president of the AVNOJ.

AVNOJ delegates represented specific parts of Yugoslavia: seventeen for Bosnia and Herzegovina, fifteen for Croatia, fourteen each for Serbia and Montenegro, eight for Slovenia, six for the Sandžak, and three for Vojvodina. This distribution reflected the number of Partisans from each part of the country taking part in the armed struggle. Some of the selected delegates, including all of those representing Slovenia and Vojvodina and twelve others, did not arrive. The Slovene delegation informed the AVNOJ of its support by telegram. Macedonia was not represented at all. The AVNOJ elected its presidency with Ivan Ribar as president and Pavle Savić and Nurija Pozderac as vice-presidents. Ribar had been the first President of the Constitutional Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which was later renamed Yugoslavia.

The AVNOJ also appointed an executive council presided by Ribar. It had three vice-presidents—Edvard Kocbek, Nurija Pozderac, and Pavle Savić—and six other members: Mladen Iveković (social affairs), Veselin Masleša (propaganda), Simo Milošević (health), Ivan Milutinović (economy), Mile Peruničić (internal affairs), and Vlada Zečević (religious affairs). The executive council was not formally considered a government, and Tito told the Bihać session of the AVNOJ that a government could not be formed for international reasons. Instead, he described the executive council as a political instrument to mobilise people.

After the Bihać meeting, land councils were established as political bodies representative of what was expected to be individual parts of the future federation. In January 1943, the executive council of the AVNOJ announced the "People's Liberation Loan", an attempt to raise half a billion kuna for the Partisan cause. The NDH's Ustaše regime launched a propaganda campaign in November 1942 to discredit the AVNOJ and portray the Partisans' struggle as pro-Serb and anti-Croat. The campaign, which declined after March 1943, involved the publication of brochures and newspaper articles as well as several rallies. Serb participation in the uprisings was highlighted while Croat or Bosnian Muslim AVNOJ participants were either not mentioned, labelled traitors, or misnamed. Ribar's name was misrepresented as Slovene-sounding "Janez Ribar".

Tito describes the purpose of AVNOJ in his work The Yugoslav peoples fight for freedom in 1944:

+Liberation councils tasked with electing AVNOJ delegates Name Established Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia November 1941* State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) June 1943 Slovene National Liberation Committee (SNOS) October 1943 State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Montenegro and Boka (ZAVNOCGB) November 1943 State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ZAVNOBiH) November 1943 Main National Liberation Committee for Vojvodina November 1943 Country Antifascist Council for the People's Liberation of the Sanjak (ZASNOS) November 1943 Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) August 1944*Established during the existence of the Užice Republic

Second session Delegates After Italy defected to the Allies and Western Allied forces advanced towards Yugoslavia, Tito announced another session of the AVNOJ. Since the previous session, the Western Allies began to support the Partisans, and Tito considered a British landing in Yugoslavia likely. In October 1943, just before the second session, the KPJ central committee established the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia (NKOJ), an all-Yugoslav executive body, appointed to perform the role of an interim government.

The AVNOJ reconvened in Jajce on 29 and 30 November 1943; Ribar chaired the meeting as president of the executive council. The KPJ originally planned for the second session of the AVNOJ to be attended by 250 delegates elected by regional land councils. The number of delegates was subsequently increased by 53 to include delegates from Macedonia and the Sandžak. In total, 78 delegates were to be elected in Croatia, 53 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 53 in Serbia, 42 in Slovenia, 42 in Macedonia, 16 in Montenegro, 11 in Sandžak, and 8 in Vojvodina. Of the planned 303, 142 delegates arrived by the start of the session and 163 deputy delegates also attended the session. No deputies from Sandžak or Macedonia were present. The Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia was unable to hold elections because of the German occupation of Serbia. Instead, the Serbian delegates were appointed by individual Partisan units originally from Serbia; as a result, eastern Yugoslavia was underrepresented.

+Delegates elected to the second session of the AVNOJ Region Delegate quota Attending delegates Attending deputies Croatia 78 37 67 Bosnia and Herzegovina 53 46 43 Serbia 53 24* – Slovenia 42 17 42 Macedonia 42 – – Montenegro 16 16 11 Sandžak 11 – – Vojvodina 8 2 – Total 303 142 163*Appointed by Serbian Partisan units

Building blocks for a new state